Slingshot

Anyone have any recommendations on a decent slingshot? I've recently been playing around with my nephew's :) and remember how fun & useful they can be. I probably wouldn't be doing too much with it other than plinking, but would like to go after the occasional squirrel/rabbit if my aim gets good enough.

I've heard that Barnett makes some decent ones, but then some other people around the 'net don't like them so much.

What say you?

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Thanks for the reminder HSO, I knew I'd read some of JoergS's posts here before, but couldn't remember the name. I've been reading up on some of his posts now :)

Is there a quality slingshot around that incorporates a wrist brace? I've tried a few of the Y designs, but for the life of me can't get the velocity/accuracy that I can with a wrist braced one.

rcmodel

August 3, 2013, 08:23 PM

http://www.sausa.com/category.php?category=16

rc

Pete D.

August 3, 2013, 09:09 PM

I have about a dozen or so slingshots. Wrist rockets, tree branch Ys, a couple of home made steel versions, two of the Dankung style cord wrapped steel pieces, and the three that I like and shoot the best.....a simple flat band over the top wooden sling by Bunny Buster and two of the molded plastic flat band side shooters by Pocket Predator.
I buy 11mm marbles from McGills Warehouse for ammo...$45 for 30 lbs of marbles, something more than 6k marbles.
Pete

nebeel

August 3, 2013, 09:29 PM

Thanks RC, that looks really nice! Not too many thingamajigs hooked onto it to make it look fancy....

nebeel

August 3, 2013, 09:31 PM

I never thought of using marbles for ammo, always just got some ball bearings if I was going for accuracy. Otherwise, just used rocks....

$45 for several thousand isn't a bad deal though at all.

rcmodel

August 3, 2013, 11:08 PM

Oh, The Horror!!!!

Those 30 pounds of glass marbles will still be littering the ground 10,000 years from now.

And future archaeologists will ponder and argue for years about what humans were doing with so many round glass spear's found in one oval shaped pattern in the ground (behind your pre-historic target they can no longer find a trace of).

Was it:
* Some Witchcraft / New Age crystal healing ritual?
* Or offerings to an unknown God of Glass Spheres?
* Maybe some form of Chinese Checkers gone awry on a grand scale that doomed civilization in the future??
* Or a crashed alien spacecraft from the Marbleiyon Galaxy???

You don't want to be any part of another scientific controversy 10,000 years from now do you?

Well, Do You??

rc

nebeel

August 4, 2013, 12:23 AM

Oh if I could even hope to be a cause of such confusion in academia my joy would be complete! :neener:

kBob

August 4, 2013, 09:49 AM

When the kids and I fail to recover enough marbles we just swing by a "dollar" store on the way home from wherever and by a bag of marbles....49 regular and a "shooter" for a buck and tax. The kids delight in the fact that a marble from a plain jane "marksman" brand they bought at Tractor Supply at seven yards can pierce an aluminum drink can. BTW thoe are available with a folding wrist brace.

We actually discussed rc's scenario some time ago as The Boy has thoughts of becoming historical dirt digger.

-kBob

Pete D.

August 4, 2013, 12:11 PM

ashed alien spacecraft from the Marbleiyon Galaxy

Gasp! You know about the Marbleiyon Galaxy???
I thought that only I.....
Be careful whom you tell.
Pete
PS - what is neat about marbles - I use the frosted ones - is that you can see them after release. Good feedback on learning to shoot straight.

Deltaboy

August 4, 2013, 12:26 PM

I have a Marksman and a old Pocket Rocket using Barrett and Marksman Heavy bands .Glass Marbles will dent soup cans and put nice marks in fence pickets. When I was younger I took rabbits and other small game with them. Waiting to get some flat bands for a Wham-O frame I restored.

danez71

August 4, 2013, 12:46 PM

Oh, The Horror!!!!

Those 30 pounds of glass marbles will still be littering the ground 10,000 years from now.

And future archaeologists will ponder and argue for years about what humans were doing with so many round glass spear's found in one oval shaped pattern in the ground (behind your pre-historic target they can no longer find a trace of).

Was it:
* Some Witchcraft / New Age crystal healing ritual?
* Or offerings to an unknown God of Glass Spheres?
* Maybe some form of Chinese Checkers gone awry on a grand scale that doomed civilization in the future??
* Or a crashed alien spacecraft from the Marbleiyon Galaxy???

You don't want to be any part of another scientific controversy 10,000 years from now do you?

Well, Do You??

rc

Use organic peanuts!!!

cpt-t

August 4, 2013, 04:21 PM

I use to use a Wrist Rocket and shoot quarter size glass balls that we could pick up from the Owens Corning plant in Amarillo Tx. By the 5 gal buckets full. Most of the guys I worked with had a Wrist Rocket also and we had a lot of Pegions and Jack Rabbits around the trucking company terminal we worked at. We got pretty good with them, and they would just do a Pegion in at any distance we could hit one. The Jackrabbits were a little toughter, but if you could hit them they were usually draging something if they could run off. Which didn`t happen to often. We would put the dead ones in one of the guys Pickup trucks and he would feed them to his hogs. They also shot Cherry Bombs along ways arounf the 4th of July. I don`t know if the Wrist Rocket Company is still even business any more, but we all had a great time with them, back in the late 70`s and early 80`s.
ken

blindhari

August 4, 2013, 04:39 PM

I make hardwood board cut slingshots. It's funny but I can make them, I can own them, I can give them away but I cannot shoot one where I live, even in my own garage, due to city law here. Best ammo bar none for me is taconite pellets. 65% iron ore and some clay fired in pellet form. Takes down a rabbit like a ball bearing but breaks up to dust if it hits a hard or really solid object. I make a version that goes into the back pocket of jeans and seems to disappear. For easy free full size patterns go to slingshot channel and download. I make and give away slingshots and canes here locally. This keeps me away from drinking coffee and sitting in McDonalds every morning with all the rest of the retirees.

blindhari

RetiredUSNChief

August 4, 2013, 05:09 PM

Mom used to buy these hangers every couple of years or so from the kids in high school who used to do what I believe was "JC" stuff. Basically, the kids got together to learn how a business worked and generated some product as a project, then manufactured and sold it as part of the process.

Never failed that some group would make these heavy duty hangers out of what I believe was 1/4" aluminum rod in various colors. Mom loved these and always bought a few when they came up.

Man, I found out that if there was one way to p*** Mom off, it was to use her nice hangers to make wrist-rockets! Seems they weren't cheap...

On the good side, they made good wrist-rockets and Mom had one of her own, custom made by her number four son! She was a darn good shot with a slingshot, let me tell you...

I used to buy surgical rubber tubing at a hardware store, or one of the pharmacies downtown. Used leather from old shoes or boots for the leather pouches.

Word to the wise...spend some time doing some decent polishing of the wrist-rocket where the tubing slides over the aluminum rod. It'll go a long way towards extending the life of your tubing.

Deltaboy

August 4, 2013, 06:21 PM

You can still get wrist rockets
http://www.bing.com/shopping/trumark-wrist-rocket-with-brace-ws1/p/7E8E0650C4A4786F5003?q=wrist+rocket&lpq=wrist%20rocket&FORM=HURE

nebeel

August 4, 2013, 08:38 PM

Some really great suggestions here, and some equally great stories :) It's fun to think back to the fun that these things can be.

Is it pretty much a rule that flat bands are better than the tube type bands?

witchhunter

August 4, 2013, 10:13 PM

I use .32 caliber lead balls in my wrist rocket. They will drop a small wildebeast. Don't hold your thumb up when shooting though!

Deltaboy

August 5, 2013, 01:54 PM

Some really great suggestions here, and some equally great stories :) It's fun to think back to the fun that these things can be.

Is it pretty much a rule that flat bands are better than the tube type bands?
Tubes last longer but for pure power flat bands rock.

Comrade Mike

August 5, 2013, 02:17 PM

When I was in high school my buddies and I spent hours under an old rail bridge shooting rocks at bottles and other shatterables we could find. After the Fourth of July we switched to the occasional fire cracker :D

Midwest

August 5, 2013, 02:19 PM

Just be aware that slingshots are illegal in some areas. In NJ it is a 4th degree crime. Here is a thread about some areas which prohibit them.

Is it pretty much a rule that flat bands are better than the tube type bands?

Yep, and that tapered bands are better than untapered.

Dirty Bob

August 6, 2013, 10:22 PM

My favorite ammo as a boy was crabapples. We had a tree that produced a lot of them! Ever squish a large snail onto a fencepost with a crabapple? SPLAT!

The .32 round balls that someone mentioned make me think of 00 buckshot: a very nice type of slingshot ammo. It's also what the protagonist used in a slingshot in Robb White's book: Deathwatch (http://www.amazon.com/Deathwatch-Robb-White/dp/0440917409/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375841698&sr=8-1&keywords=robb+white+death+watch). That book was one of my favorites, growing up, along with several more of White's works, such as Up Periscope! (http://www.amazon.com/Up-Periscope-Robb-White/dp/B000OO5YQM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375841795&sr=8-1&keywords=robb+white+up+periscope)

For just messing around, we sometimes shot BBs. They were cheap and worked OK, with our homemade slingshots, for close-in targets. The best ammo I had access to were marbles and .38 round balls that I cast with an old-fashioned mould from Dixie Gun Works. I had to snip off the sprue with a pair of modified wire cutters. Still have the mould and the cutters (and my first store-bought wrist rocket!). Fun times.

During the ammo drought, I bought a few boxes of slingshot ammo (steel balls) at Walmart. At least that way, I didn't leave empty handed. :cool:

Fun topic! You really need to see JoergS 's videos, including his machete-launching "slingshot." He's great.

Regards,
Dirty Bob

Deltaboy

August 8, 2013, 01:48 PM

You can get some great ammo and the Slingshot forum is a good place to join !

RetiredUSNChief

August 23, 2013, 07:28 PM

Soooooo...

Played around with some parachute cord a week or so ago and made myself a sling. No leather pouch...100% parachute cord.

Not a slingshot...a "sling". As in "David-slew-Goliath" type of sling.

Didn't have much opportunity to test it until yesterday and today, what with work, location and all.

THIS, my friend, is FUN! :D

Picked myself a spot at the shipyard to demonstrate it to a couple co-workers today, a few hours after the day shift had left and people were scarce.

An EASY 150 yards! :what:

I don't think there will be much problem developing some decent accuracy with this, either.

Here is the video I used for making it out of parachute cord. Kinda longer than it needs to be, and I didn't follow his directions to the letter, but it's pretty good. (A retired sailor can figure out how to do his loops and such without dragging the cord through all kinds of contortions to get there.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-QxP40FfNQ

Here is a fairly good video demonstrating a couple slinging techniques. I find the one the guy describes as a "figure-8" to be outstanding. It's very much like throwing a baseball overhand and I find I can get a much more powerful slinging motion this way. Probably because I'm a much more powerful overhand thrower than a side thrower.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEr85ZTqbcI

Deltaboy

August 24, 2013, 08:11 PM

Have fun .

Officers'Wife

August 24, 2013, 08:27 PM

This thread is giving me flashbacks of when my brother saw some internet video and built a "repeating" slingshot out of resistance tubing and scrap lumber. I won't describe the chaos only that the very fact my brother is still alive is proof my sister in law is even tempered.

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